arXiv “on hold”: Beware Delays in arXiv Posts

In an earlier post I described my reasons for posting on arXiv, including some consequences to watch out for. I did, however, leave out an important potential problem, especially if you are depending on a permanent link. If you are not careful, there can be a long delay in your manuscript being posted. In one case my wait was over 2 months. In the end, it was (probably) my own fault, but I wanted to share the details here so that it might help someone from making the same mistake. My warning is to be careful with subject classification.

My Delay Story

Typically, a paper that you submit to arXiv will be posted and “announced” (i.e., gets a permanent link and is included in the official mailing list) within a day or two. This was the case for the first eight papers that I personally posted. My next paper was not so fortunate. If you follow the link, you will see that it was submitted on October 15, 2014. What it does not tell you (fortunately) is that the paper did not get a permanent link until December 21, 2014. I think that can be reasonably classified as a “long delay”.

Unfortunately, there was minimal communication with me about the reason for the delay. I hold nothing against the arXiv staff for this, but it was a bit frustrating to experience. Here’s what happened in fall 2014:

October 14: I submit my manuscript as usual.

October 15: No announcement email. The status of the paper is described as “on-hold”. I refer to the arXiv help on submissions, where I read the following:

Submissions may be put on hold for a variety of reasons … [Minor Reasons Listed] … Due to the large volume of submissions, it may take several days before a resolution is reached.

My paper was a conference paper, so the special case of an “overlength” submission did not apply. So, I waited …

November 10: I create a help ticket to ask about the reason for the delay and whether there was anything I could to upgrade my paper from “on hold”.

November 11: I receive a kind and yet uninformative email that apologized for the delay. I am told that there is nothing I can do and that the moderation team is unable to provide any updates.

December 21: The paper is announced.

My Explanation for the Long Delay

I never did get a reason for the long delay, so at best I can speculate. Here is my explanation. I classified all of my papers as “information theory”, including this paper. Arguably, it had the least relevance to information theory (it was definitely the intended application, but I’m not going to split hairs). When it was finally announced, its primary classification was changed to “emerging technologies”. So, my best guess is that the paper was flagged for being improperly categorized.

I was lucky in my situation. I didn’t need a link right away. But I do know colleagues who submitted to arXiv just before submitting a follow-up paper, and they needed a link as soon as possible. So, when you’re trying to submit a paper at the “last minute”, don’t rush how you classify your work!

Final note: The original post is getting updated to include this issue in its list of considerations.